I have just phoned customer services at Duxford with this question. I was advised that it is intended that the grandstand will be situated in front of the British Airliners collection. The person I spoke with wasn't sure of seat numbers, but thought it will be about 500 for this first time. There will be no standing crowd in front of the grandstand. Seats are not reservable, so if you are with a group and arrive once all other seats are taken you may have to split up i.e. seat 'allocation' on the day is first come first served and subject to your own choice based on what is available. I also asked about siting of the Friends of IWM enclosure. I was advised initially that they thought that this would be in the same area as the previous Friends of Duxford, but there may also be a slight change in the offing by moving the Friends of IWM area further towards the centre of the crowd line, nearer to the control tower.

I'm not sure the addition of another grandstand is a good idea, the flightline is already restricted with the closure of the tank bank and is already quite a bun fight to get a good spot, with the addition of another grandstand is going to restrict it further. Unless IWM are doing this just to try and milk more money out of the punters who would;ve already paid a large amount just to get in and park.

rdchawk wrote:I'm not sure the addition of another grandstand is a good idea, the flightline is already restricted with the closure of the tank bank and is already quite a bun fight to get a good spot, with the addition of another grandstand is going to restrict it further. Unless IWM are doing this just to try and milk more money out of the punters who would;ve already paid a large amount just to get in and park.

Crowdline is restricted you're right. Adding a grandstand - where 500 people get an uninterrupted view - would if anything relieve the pressure on the crowd line rather than add to it? in other words, there's net gain of people getting a decent view. Especially where its located beside the airliners, making the most of narrow, difficult space. Furthermore, its hardly going to be restricting view from behind as the airliners do that already.

For me personally, that central location is the last place I'd chose to put myself at Legends, but for the general spectator, it has to be a nice way to enjoy the show, surely?

As for the cost, well, that sort of infrastructure costs a lot of money.

Anyway, all academic for me this year as I'll be in Gloucestershire that weekend, but I'll be interested to see how it works out.

rdchawk wrote:I'm not sure the addition of another grandstand is a good idea, the flightline is already restricted with the closure of the tank bank and is already quite a bun fight to get a good spot, with the addition of another grandstand is going to restrict it further. Unless IWM are doing this just to try and milk more money out of the punters who would;ve already paid a large amount just to get in and park.

Crowdline is restricted you're right. Adding a grandstand - where 500 people get an uninterrupted view - would if anything relieve the pressure on the crowd line rather than add to it? in other words, there's net gain of people getting a decent view. Especially where its located beside the airliners, making the most of narrow, difficult space. Furthermore, its hardly going to be restricting view from behind as the airliners do that already.

But they said in front of the airliner collection, not beside it? That's always been a big bit of open tarmac that gives you a good chance to shoot well over the heads of the people who get as close to the crowd line as possible, usually in a much less densely crowded environment. And it gives you a decent line onto both ends of the tailchase tracks to get "gang" shots. This whole grandstand thing is going much too far. 500 X whatever they charge is actually less important to them than 17000 X ordinary punter and all airshows need to think about that more.

... I was advised that it is intended that the grandstand will be situated in front of the British Airliners collection.....

If that means what I think it does it will destroy the view to the left from the Friends of Duxford (or whatever it will be called now) enclosure. Will definitely make me re-consider my current intent to "upgrade" to a so-called "Premiere" membership....